On Media

Michael Forsythe out at Bloomberg News

Michael Forsythe, the Bloomberg News reporter suspected of leaking allegations that his outlet spiked investigative reports on China, has left the company, he confirmed on Tuesday.

"I can confirm that I have left Bloomberg News. That's all I'm going to say for now," Forsythe wrote on Twitter.

Forsythe was suspended last week after the publication of a New York Times report alleging that Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief Matthew Winkler had killed a yearlong investigation into financial ties between Chinese government officials and one of the country's wealthiest businessmen.

In a call to four Hong Kong-based Bloomberg reporters last month, Winkler is reported to have killed the article due to fear of retribution from the Chinese government. “He said, ‘If we run the story, we’ll be kicked out of China,’" one of the four Bloomber employees told the Times. Winkler later killed a second story about the children of senior Chinese officials employed by foreign banks, according to the Times report.

In a statement to the Times, Winkler denied the allegations: “What you have is untrue," he said. "The stories are active and not spiked.”

Bloomberg News has had run-ins with the Chinese government before. In 2012, a series on Chinese leaders' personal wealth angered the government and, according to the Times report, led to denied residency for reporters and a decline in sales of the company's financial terminals.